TL;DR – While some moments hit hard, it felt like we had a world that was only ankle-deep deep, and you really wished you could dive in.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Badland Hunters Review –

The thing that makes the post-apocalypse setting such an excellent world to explore is that you can explore human stories without the frameworks that hold everything in place. But if you are going to dive into that world, you need to bring something to the table.

So to set the scene, a scientist, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-joon), was involved in many unethical experiments in an attempt to bring back his daughter. However, just as the authorities reach him, Seoul is struck with an earthquake so severe that it destroys most buildings and leaves much of the Korean Peninsular a barren wasteland. If you are lucky, you will find a place to barter on what food and water is left. If you are unlucky, you will see yourself set upon by cannibals. Nam-san (Ma Dong-seok) and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) work as hunters bringing food to the local settlement, but when people kidnap Han Su-na (Roh Jeong-eui) with a bad habit of not dying, well, that is not on.   

While there were some frustrations here, there were deeply compelling moments. Ma Dong-seok is one of the few actors that you could believably think could stop a rampaging crocodile by its tail. He has an impact in every moment that he has, every punch, and every car crash. Indeed, one of the best choices that the film made was to give him a shotgun to be the extension of his character. The general design of the world is also robust, with a lot of work going into the prop and set design. To go with this, the action scenes are also a highlight, which, given the director’s history, should be expected.

From my reading up on this, this is a sequel or set in the same universe as Concrete Utopia (Konkeuriteu Yutopia/콘크리트 유토피아). However, thankfully, you didn’t need to see that first film to follow what was going on here. This is also a bit of a problem because it also feels deliberately detached from the other movie while still playing with the core premise. Because you can feel an odd disconnect in the film even without delving further into it.  

I did like that the film explores past and future fears in Korean society, including forces of unethical medical extermination and population decline. However, while these were interesting topics, I don’t feel like the film ever truly explored them beyond their existence in this world. This is not helped by flat dialogue, a dull villain, an utterly inconsistent tone, and paper-thin motivations that no amount of reptile makeup can overcome.

In the end, do we recommend Badland Hunters? Well, there were some cool moments, and the action moments were generally solid. But all of that needed to be built upon a stronger foundation. If you liked Badland Hunters, we would recommend to you Love and Monsters.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Badland Hunters?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Badland Hunters
Directed by – Heo Myung-haeng
Screenplay by – Kim Bo-tong & Kwak Jae-min
Music by – Kim Dong-wook
Cinematography by – Byun Bong-seon
Edited by –
Production/Distribution Companies – Climax Studio, Big Punch Pictures, Nova Film, Lotte Entertainment & Netflix
Starring – Ma Dong-seok, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui & Ahn Ji-hye with Seong Byeong-suk, Park Hyo-jun, Jang Young-nam, Lee Han-joo,
Rating – Australia: MA15+;